Destroy Alewife to Save North Cambridge? Nonsense!

There is a very real disconnect from reality among the Cambridge pols, and it is amazing just how consistent that disconnect comes out in response to the most destructive actions by the City of Cambridge.

A person who has been a 15 or more year member of the Fake Protective Group on Alewife very indignantly proclaimed a few days ago that the destruction imminent at Alewife is necessary to keep North Cambridge from being the flood storage for Alewife.

Absolute nonsense, as usual.

Truly bizarre destruction out of Cambridge. Truly bizarre explanation, as usual.

The core Alewife reservation is being destroyed, supposedly, for flood storage to protect against a TWO year storm. A TWO year storm is the worst storm, on average coming every two years. Alewife has seen TWO FIFTY years storms in the past 20 years.

A few days ago, Marilyn Wellons provided a link to photos of one of those 50 year storms in 1997?, http://www.openeyesvideo.com/Floodpix.html.

The Cambridge pols, as usual, do not want to know reality.

Reality is those flood photos.

Reality is the Satellite view from http://maps.google.com showing 100 Cambridge Park Drive, Cambridge, MA.

In that satellite view, above Cambridge Park Drive is the virgin Alewife reservation with its excellent native trees and its massive animal population. When I last saw the Google Maps view, it was dated. It did not show this massive destruction which has been already accomplished, but which is PRELIMINARY, far smaller than the intended destruction.

Directly below Cambridge Park Drive is a massive parking lot, readily usable for a very large multiple of the silly flood storage being created by the destruction of the core Alewife reservation. That parking lot runs all the way over to Alewife Brook Parkway. That massive parking lot occupies a very large percentage of the area between Cambridge Park Drive and the Commuter Rail to the south of the parking lot.

But the owner of a very large part of that parking lot wants to build, and, once the suckers learn just how much they have been shafted, the destroyers will be oh, so sorry. “Why did you not keep us from doing this terrible thing?” is their usual position. And this will not be the first time a con game has achieved exactly the opposite of what has been claimed.

Just another con game.

If the Cambridge City Council even slightly resembled the environmental saints they constantly tell us they are, there is no question that that parking lot would be taken for flood storage with the buildings being constructed on air rights above the flood storage. And the flood storage would be a very large multiple of the silly flood storage for which the core Alewife reservation is being destroyed.

If the Cambridge City Council even slightly resembled the environmental saints they constantly claim to be, the destruction of the irreplaceable core Alewife reservation will not commence in October 2011 and be done for a month with logging, clear cutting and massive killing of animals.

The destruction would be ended immediately and that massive parking lot would be used for flood storage.

But the Cambridge City Council is lying in its constant claims of environmental sainthood.

Reality is the opinion of independent third parties looking at Cambridge.

Reality is Monteiro v. City of Cambridge. Jury: $3.5 million penal damages. Superior court judge: “reprehensible.” Appeals court: “ample evidence [of] outrageous conduct.” $8.3 million paid to the plaintiff with total cost reported to exceed $10 million.

For the key superior court opinion, see http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/judge-issues-decision-denying.html. For the comments of the appeals court panel, see http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/appeals-court-decision-in-monteiro.html.

That was on a civil rights case which concerned a woman’s life being destroyed by the Cambridge City Manager because she had the nerve to file a civil rights complaint. The Cambridge City Council also claims to be civil rights saints. The failure to implement the court decisions and fire the Cambridge City Manager shows reality once again.

The Cambridge City Council is living a lot of lies.

But fake groups help them out by running protection for them.

South Station Expansion Project, information link

When dealing with the situation in Cambridge, MA, USA, accurate information is always a lot more valuable than the stuff being passed around in Cambridge.

The Cambridge pols are fighting for commuter rail trains on the Grand Junction railroad line running under the BU Bridge through the nesting area of the Charles River White Geese, and passing through the eastern part of Cambridge with at grade crossings at a number of busy Cambridge Streets.

Worcester / Framingham commuter service currently goes to South Station. An excellent connection to the proposed Urban Ring Orange Line service has been assisted by the legislature’s subsidy to the rebuilding of Yawkey Station near Kenmore Station on the Green Line and near Fenway Park. Yawkey Station is on the line currently serving Framingham / Worcester.

The Cambridge Pols are putting out nonsense that moving “a few” (and then all) commuter trips from Framingham / Worcester to the Grand Junction is needed to expand service. They want that service to go to North Station via the Grand Junction.

The pols, as usual, just cannot understand that the expansion of South Station for the South Coast Rail Project will create ample room for expansion of Worcester / Framingham service without their silly and very destructive Grand Junction route.

Marilyn Wellons has been kind enough to provide the URL for the state documents on the South Station Expansion Project.

http://web.massdot.net/southstationexpansion/Documents.html

Thank you, Marilyn.